Padre Dam general manager justifies salary hikes as a result of workforce reduction

Top officials of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District have received thousands of dollars in pay raises since 2011, even as ratepayers saw their water bills — among the county’s highest — increase by 5 percent a year.

Twenty-two district employees earning more than $100,000 received raises over the past three fiscal years, according information provided by the district and the state controller’s public employee compensation database.

Padre Dam officials said that while they did give pay increases to management, they took a number of other measures to reduce the district’s deficit, including layoffs, freezing positions, labor concessions and deferring capital projects.

“The modest pay increases provided to the employees who remain here at Padre Dam, I believe, are justified as we demand more work from them as a result of the workforce reduction,” Padre Dam General Manager Allen Carlisle said.

Critics said that the district should not be giving raises as ratepayers are still dealing with the aftereffects of the recession.

“We have had to cut back so much, and they are taking salary increases,” said Gary Dale Kennedy, who unsuccessfully ran for the water board last year. “No private company would be able to stay in business like that.”

Among the officials whose salary increased, Chief Financial Officer Karen Jassoy’s salary increased from $153,000 to $168,000; Director of Operations and Water Quality Frank Kowalski’s salary rose from $152,000 to nearly $164,000; and Carlisle, who was promoted from parks director in 2011, saw his base pay increase from $160,000 to $180,000.

In all, about 30 of 130 employees make six figures at the water district.

Padre Dam’s water rates were already among the highest in the county, according to a 2011 U-T Watchdog survey. Officials announced in 2012 that rates would rise as much as 5 percent a year for the next three years.

Carlisle said that the district’s rate increases are largely due to increases in costs from the district’s supplier, the San Diego County Water Authority.

“It has a lot to do with — primarily to do with — costs of delivering water,” he said.

Padre Dam officials said the raises were more than offset by the district’s reduction plan, which was launched in July 2011 to help the district, which provides water and recreation services for 100,000 residents in a wide swath of East County, avoid a $3.5 million budget shortfall during fiscal 2011.

As part of the plan, employees were required to pay an additional 3.5 percent of their salaries toward their pensions and pay the full share of their pension obligations, or 8 percent of their salaries, by 2014.

The plan also included eliminating 26 positions — or 19 percent of the workforce — through attrition, retirements and layoffs, and lowered the salaries of newly hired employees.

Carlisle said the reduction plan has saved the district $750,000 in retirement contributions.

“Over the last two years, our district has gone into uncharted territory,” he said. “The negotiated (reductions) far outweigh the increase of costs of doing business.”

The San Diego County Taxpayers Association, which has been critical of a number of districts’ pension-reform efforts, said that while Padre Dam’s efforts are commendable, they fall short of other districts, which have enacted pension reform without increasing salaries.

Ultimately, officials with the taxpayer group said, ratepayers end up paying more because retirees’ pensions are now based on those increased salaries.

“What they fail to realize is that increasing salaries has not only short-term effect, but long-term effect on the district,” said Chris Cate, interim president and CEO of the taxpayers association. “Districts need to be showing ratepayers not only the present, short-term savings, but also the long-term costs. Districts need to be showing ratepayers that they are doing all they can to reduce costs.”